Pizza Marketing: 15 Tactics To Increase Pizza Sales for 2025

With the pizza industry worth over $160 billion and takeout and delivery as top choices for most customers, standing out in this competitive market calls for a strategy that truly understands the pizzeria business.

A great pizza marketing plan doesn’t just focus on bringing in new customers. It also helps keep them coming back. This plan is made especially for pizza shops, looking at how people buy, profit margins, and what makes pizza so popular.

Below, I’ll guide you through my proven pizza marketing approach to increase sales, reduce fees, and streamline staffing. Our strategy has helped hundreds of pizzerias increase direct online orders by an average of 270% in just 90 days.

Why pizza marketing is different 

Marketing only works when it fits the type of food you sell. Pizzerias prove that. Some things that work for pizzerias don't work that well for other restaurants. Here’s how marketing for a pizzeria differs from general restaurant marketing:

1. Easy add-ons: Easy add-ons: Pizza pairs well with low-cost, high-margin sides. This can be items like garlic bread, wings and sodas. As I've mentioned in other posts, this is a great way restaurants can make orders more profitable.

2. Building loyalty: Pizzerias are well-suited for loyalty programs that encourage repeat visits. Pizza’s low price and flexibility make it easy to set up loyalty rewards that customers actually use. (Just look at Domino’s!)

3. Made for groups: Pizza is meant to be shared. Large group orders are much easier for pizza than other fast-casual options. Offering a family or party package helps increase the order value without raising costs too much.

Getting your pizza marketing right is key to getting more orders and making more money. Let’s look at some ways to help you beat the competition.

How to get new customers to your pizzeria 

The first step to growth is getting new people to place orders at your pizza shop. Pizzerias tend to face more competition than most other cuisine types. 

We’ve found that the following three marketing ideas are most effective at driving new customer orders for pizzerias:

• Showing up at the top of Google through restaurant SEO
• Fixing your website so more visitors place an order

Let’s dig into each strategy.

1. Get your homepage to show up in Google

For local businesses like pizzerias, your website’s homepage is the star of the show. If you want your pizzeria to show up in Google searches, you’ll want to start adding keywords that are relevant to your pizza restaurant onto your website’s homepage. 

Including certain keywords on your homepage tells Google that your website should show up when people search for them.

So, what keywords should you add to your homepage?

Over the last 5 years, I’ve tested hundreds of keywords across thousands of restaurants and found that the following keywords are THE best choice for independent pizzerias:

• “Best pizza in [your city]”
• “Pizzeria in [your city]”
• Popular toppings keywords

Many pizza consumers search by their desired pizza topping, so you want to list popular toppings keywords on your homepage.

The above three keywords are pretty universal and are what the best pizza websites feature, so I definitely recommend personalizing and using them. 

For example, Fiamma’s Pizza ranks at the top of Google for its primary home page keyword, “best pizza in Bellingham”:

2. Make sure your information is updated 

Your pizzeria’s information needs to be the same everywhere and, if anything, should be included on your website. This information includes your name, address and phone number (NAP).  

Google tracks the total number of online NAPs when determining how important a local business is. It’s very common for internet-only businesses to attempt to trick Google’s algorithm, and tracking NAPs is one of Google’s key tools in helping prevent that. 

Here are some common places where a pizzeria should have their NAP:

1. Google Business
2. Yelp
3. TripAdvisor
4. Yellow Pages
5. Foursquare
6. Better Business Bureau
7. Social media pages 

Plus, having accurate contact information will make it easier for your new customers to find you. 

3. Include a menu preview  

I suggest including a compelling menu preview to help make the case as to why customers should order from your website. 

A menu preview highlights some of your bestsellers and includes tantalizing images combined with a call to action. For Owner.com partners, our website design layout conveniently features the preview just below the initial landing screen.  

4. Create menu pages for key dishes

Creating a dedicated menu page for your top dishes can boost your keyword ranking and increase visibility in search results. At Owner.com, we make your menu a powerful marketing tool. Many pizzerias have menus online, but few maximize them for SEO.

Owner.com turns your existing menu into a channel to attract new guests by creating unique, Google-ranked pages for each item. For example, a menu page for "best Margherita pizza in [location]" can help people find you more easily than just "best Italian food in [location]." Each page should have clear descriptions and fun pictures right on your menu.

Doing this is such a quick and strategic move to help you rank for more keywords and grab the attention of nearby customers who are craving your menu. 

I also recommend starting with pages for your most popular items. For example, our friends at Metro Pizza use our website builder, which shows their most popular items on the menu page.

5. Add appetizing pictures to your homepage 

The first thing new visitors should see when they land on your website is a collection of appetizing pictures of your bestselling pizzas.

This might sound obvious, but I’ve consistently been surprised by how many pizzerias don’t lead with amazing food pictures on their website. 

Our latest study found that 84% of customers usually look at menu photos before deciding what to order. So, be sure to include photos, ratings, and reviews.

It’s way too common to see pictures of the restaurant’s interior or exterior, poor-quality pictures of the food or any number of other visuals that don’t highlight the star of the show: your pizza. 

The better the pictures of your food, the more enticed new visitors will be to place an immediate order. This should definitely be part of your pizza marketing strategy.

6. Run strategic promotions  

In a highly competitive, somewhat commodified cuisine category like pizza, finding ways to stand out can be a game-changer. And one of the best ways to stand out and give people a reason to take notice of your pizzeria is to run a strategic promotion.

Restaurant promotions work on two different levels:

• They provide a focal point to get people’s attention
• They provide a reason for people to visit your pizzeria 

​​One of the best and most interesting examples of pizza marketing was a campaign that Hell Pizza ran in 2012a. The chain launched a promotional challenge where customers could request to have two drops of ghost pepper chili sauce added to one random slice of their pizza.

The challenge drew international media coverage, and Hell Pizza had its biggest sales day of all time during the event. It also saw an overall lift in sales, despite local economic struggles, and made the small, New Zealand-based chain a tourist stop. 

Other ways you can do this can be something like: 

• Combo deals like BOGO pizzas
• Limited specials on game days or events, like the Super Bowl 

These are perfect pizza marketing examples that draw attention AND bring people into your pizzeria. 

Earn more from each customer 

Next, I’ll show you some straightforward and immediate pizza marketing tips to earn more money from every new customer who places an order at your shop. And the top way you can do this is by encouraging a stellar, convenient checkout experience. 

A better checkout experience will result in more orders from new customers, it’s going to result in more return customers, and most importantly in the short term, it’s going to increase the average check size of every customer who places an order on the website. 

In fact, 63% of guests say convenience matters when ordering. And 87% will reorder if they have a good online experience.

I’ll show you how to do this below.

7. Encourage direct online orders 

The first, simplest, and most immediately profitable thing you can do as a pizzeria is get off any system or third-party app that results in hefty fees and hurts your margins. You can do this by encouraging direct online orders. 

Suppose you switch to an online ordering system like Owner.com that can accept takeout orders and fulfill delivery orders without charging you commissions. You could save a lot just by moving even a small amount of orders over from third-party apps to your website.  

Take my friends at Ottavio’s Italian Restaurant, for example. They had some online presence, bringing in about $12k monthly through DoorDash—but with zero profit. But after switching to Owner.com, they fully replaced those DoorDash sales within a month and kept growing. 

Now, Ottavio’s online orders average 6% monthly growth, accounting for 50% of total sales and setting the business up for 36% growth this year.

Tell your customer the benefits of ordering from you directly through your site, like saving money in third-party fees, supporting local businesses, earning free food via your loyalty program, and even getting faster service. 

8. Get a mobile app 

One important way to get more from each customer is by creating a branded mobile app for your restaurant. This makes ordering easier for regular customers, who can save and reorder their favorite items with just a few taps.

Our data shows that restaurants with mobile apps get 85% more reorders. Mobile apps are a must for pizzerias. Big chains like Domino’s offer big discounts, like 50% off on the first app order, to encourage customers to order directly through the app.

For example, when Metro Pizza added Owner.com’s mobile app to their marketing, over 11,000 customers downloaded it in just 90 days. Now, it’s the main way people order takeout from them.

The app has helped Metro Pizza make $112,000 per month in direct online sales. 

9. Engage customers through email and text  

Every pizzeria should be sending re-engagement texts and emails to its customers. With the right marketing, you can take a $20 order and turn it into a $80 per month regular.

This is a big part of why Ottavio’s Italian Restaurant went from doing $12,000 per month in DoorDash orders to $24,000 per month on Owner.com. Once they had the customer data from all those new orders, they were able to turn them into regulars using email marketing. 

Every week, their customers will receive SMS texts and emails that remind them of discounts or offers.

This process requires you to have basic data from your customers like their email and phone number—I recommend getting this data through email and text signups on your homepage. 

10. Suggest add-ons

To quickly boost check sizes, suggest add-ons and upsells for high-margin items at checkout. For example, you can suggest something like garlic bread or a side salad option to pair with a pizza order. I’d recommend a popup that appears right after an item is added to the cart. 

You can also do things like: 

• Provide a section on your money called “Top picks” to show customers the best sellers they may want to add to their carts.
• Offer a discount for an add-on, like an  “Earn 30 extra points” prompt next to an item.

To make this easier, Owner.com can automatically suggest add-ons with the website builder tool.

11. Allow for customization 

Another tip for pizzerias is to let customers personalize their orders. This can increase the total order size. It also makes the experience better by letting customers pick exactly what they want.

For example, when you click on one of Metro Pizza’s popular menu items, you can customize the crust, cheese and add your favorite toppings. 

That’s the kind of flexibility customers love—and it keeps them coming back for more! This leads me to the next section—how to get customers to make repeat purchases.  

Encourage repeat customers 

One of the most important things you can do for your restaurant is to get repeat customers. Pizza is a very "reorder-friendly" food, so regulars are especially valuable to pizzerias. 

I’ve found that you can create regulars by reminding customers to order with you and incentivizing orders through a loyalty program. 

Here are my tips to help you build loyalty customers: 

12. Start using a loyalty program  

People enjoy pizza from a lot of different sources, and even if you objectively offer the best pie in town, that doesn’t necessarily mean people are going to choose your pizzeria every time they’re in the mood for a slice.

One of the best things you can do to combat this is to offer your own loyalty program. With a loyalty program, customers know that every time they purchase pizza from your restaurant, they are going to move closer toward winning free food. 

Here are three key items to include in your pizza loyalty program: 

• Offer good rewards: Your loyalty program should give rewards that keep customers coming back. This can be things like sign-up bonuses, membership rewards, and rewards for every order.‍
• Message customers often: Remind customers about the points they’ve earned. This can be through text or email, like “You earned 160 points since your last order! Use your points to get free items on our website.” Always add a link to the loyalty program in these messages.‍
• Have a simple design: Your loyalty program should have a clean, easy design that customers can access on their phones.

With Owner.com’s loyalty program, you can offer a program as good as Domino’s without needing a big budget or losing your data or delivery profits.

Check out my video below if you want to learn more about creating a profitable loyalty program:

13. Capitalize on peak hours   

Pizzerias operate on a predictable demand curve, with peaks on weekends, evenings and events. So, I’d recommend capitalizing on this through exclusive peak-hour promotions. You can try out pizza advertising ideas like: 

• Special bundles or group deals on Fridays and Saturdays to help boost large orders
• Late-night deals on weekends 
• Free sides with a large pizza order 

This can help customers think of your pizzeria for fun moments. This can be things like weekend get-togethers or game nights, making it their go-to choice for group events.

14. Combine discounts with a minimum order value 

We’ve found that discounts alongside a minimum order value of $40-50 work amazingly well for pizzerias. Discounts like:

• $7 off on orders above $40
• 15% off on orders above $50
• 10% off on orders above $40

We learned this after letting our new AI-powered discount tool figure out which offers drove the most net sales for pizzerias. But, you can test this yourself even if you aren’t on Owner. We recommend starting with a $40 order minimum and either a flat number or a percentage discount.

Send these to guests who have ordered before, and especially to guests who have ordered multiple times but not in the past two-ish weeks. Discounts are especially effective at that time.

15. Start a "Slice it Forward" referral program

I would also recommend spreading the word with a “Slice it Forward” referral program. This program rewards both the referrer and the new customer with a discount or a free item (like garlic bread or a drink) when the new customer places their first order. 

Customers who help promote and grow your business can feel more connected and can be more likely to become repeat customers. 

Boost your pizzeria’s profits with Owner.com

Remember, marketing for a pizza restaurant is unique—strategies like upselling, loyalty programs and group discounts pair really well with what a pizzeria offers. If you want to increase your profits, be sure to keep these 15 tactics in mind.  

If you’d like to see everything our platform can do for your pizzeria, schedule a free demo with Owner today.

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